Shuttle to Frankfort, Germany!!

GREETINGS!!! :-)

Early Wednesday morning, my crew & I had to hop a shuttle from Kaiserslautern to Frankfort, Germany. It was sad to leave, but we all knew we were on our way to beautiful Budapest... so it made it that much easier! We all met down for breakfast around 7:30am and caught the snowy shuttle at 8:15! It was a great morning in Germany... thick white snow was coming down, and it was GREAT because I could just enjoy it and not worry about driving in it! Ha! :-)



On our shuttles to and from the airport, we always seemed to have our assigned seats... Usually, Danny, Nikki, and I sat in the back and goofed off on the way to the hotel while listening to music and laughing the whole way! (Imagine that!) On this one, Philippe and I caught the corner, Andrea got the window, and Nikki squeezed back and forth between us and the seat in front!


Anyone who flies with us knows that we carry our 'Monkey Mugs' with us wherever we go! I made this for Philippe a couple weeks ago after he lost his one and only beloved coffee mug he's flown with for 10 years! He accidentally left it on one of our planes and hasn't seen it since. We both like to call our uniforms our 'monkey suits', so I thought it only appropriate that I decorate them with monkey stickers! I, of course, picked out a pink one for myself too so I have my own. These things come in handy on our long duty days, let me tell you! :-)


J'adore!

Danny & Nikki... our other faves on our crew! These two are a riot together!

"Can we get some air?? Can we get some volume??" Hahahaha- Let's just say not EVERYONE on our crew was as like-able as these two... ;-)

WOW!!! I've only seen these departure boards in movies! This is at the Frankfort, Germany airport and the numbers & letters constantly flip updating arrivals and departures. SO cool!

Look how small I look against these boards! wow! Can't believe how much I've ALWAYS loved airports... :-)

SO HAPPY. We had, like, 2 hours before our departure so we staked out a spot by a window and watched the Lufthansa planes take off! We had a couple laughs as well... can you tell??? :-) Happiest couple in Germany!

Look at this HUGE 747!!!! I would LOVE to see one from the inside someday!!!!

Well on our way to Budapest... our home away from home! Just found out I got extended AGAIN until December 21st!!!! That means I'll have been out for almost an entire month and I LOVE IT. I can't get enough of traveling and seeing the world! Expect lots more updates in the next couple days/weeks. Have I mentioned yet.... that I love my job??? :-)

CHEERS!!!!!

-Lisa :-)

Downtown Kaiserslautern, Germany: WINTERTRAUM FESTIVAL!!

I LOVE the holiday season!!!!

It is SO great being overseas this holiday season and seeing how everyone else celebrates Christmas. The Germans REALLY know how to do it right! Philippe and I took the bus outside our hotel on Monday afternoon and wandered downtown to find the 'Kaiserslautern Christmas Market'!



This is the entrance to the festival from the street... I was SO excited to find it so quickly once we got off the bus!


They had tons of rides for kids and PLENTY of beverages for adults! :-)

This was the first booth that Philippe and I came across as we walked in. Naturally, they had German beers on special for about $2, so of course we each got one and continued on our way through the streets! We sure do LOVE our German beer! YUM!!

Beautiful Germany!!! Seeing all these holiday decorations FINALLY made me realize that Christmas is coming! It was so nice to enjoy this... I really miss seeing Christmas decorations at home!

Here I am... proudly displaying my delicious German beer! Philippe and I had the BEST time walking the streets and checking out the shops. It wasn't that cold, either... the buildings really blocked the wind! The beautiful Christmas lights somehow kept me warm as well! :-)

Ahh... the infamous HOT WINE you can find ANYWHERE in Germany around Christmastime! You pick your liquor of choice; Rum, Jagermeister, or Amaretto; and they add a shot of it to their delicious hot red wine! It REALLY kept me warm later in the night! Ha!

Philippe and I, enjoying our trip and our time together! Our first holiday season together... and I LOVE being able to spend it with him overseas!!

This was the cutest little cookie booth... they had SO MANY decorated cookies in all shapes and sizes! How yummy!! I wanted one so bad, but I know it would have been so cute that I wouldn't have wanted to eat it, and I wondered how I could have possibly transported it back home safely! Oh well.. :-)

Philippe and I started to get hungry, and the BEST thing about German Festivals (besides the beer, of course! ;-), are the BRATS!!!!!!

We each ordered a double brat and we split an order of seasoned pommes frites (french fries). The fries were served with a sweet ketchup and went PERFECT with the paprika flavoring they were tossed in! YUM! The brats were served with a sweet hot German mustard... I SWEAR we should have ordered 2 each. They were the best brats I've ever had in my life!

"Dear Santa, there's not anything I could POSSIBLY ask for more this year!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for my job and for my love!!!!"

Just another Monday night out in Germany. I LOVE that Europeans really know how to live life. I noticed that ANY night out could seem like a weekend night, because they are constantly going out to eat, for drinks, no matter what night of the week it is. They all work like Americans, but they're not stressed about the everyday things that we sometimes tend to be. They have 2 hour lunch breaks during the day and they leave work to go out and enjoy their night rather than dread showing up at work again the next morning! Wow, if only more Americans could live and love life like that!

"Luckiest guy in Germany!"

A Santa Band!!! How funny!!! Played favorites such as 'Silent Night'... LOVE that Christmas Carol! So special. :-)

Just in case we were wondering how far away we were from the U.S... SO far away, but having the time of my life!!!

Happy Holidays!

CHEERS!

-Lisa :-)

"Would you like a snack??"

Hello again!!!!

It's about 2 hours from our initial descent and it's time to go through the cabin and offer snacks to our 150+ troops on board that are halfway through their second movie!

Who WOULDN'T want these fun, spunky flight attendants serving them peanuts, candy bars, and chips on their way home from Kuwait?? :-)

Danny is SUCH a riot... only we would come up with this makeshift hat for him to wear while he kept our troops happy!

Can I get you anything else? Coffee? Water? Tea? A blanket?

SO SYMBOLIC. Wearing our favorite snacks atop our heads PROUDLY!!!

They don't serve snacks on commercial flights like THIS anymore now, do they??? All the more reason to fly RYAN!!!!! :-)

CHEERS!

-Lisa :-)

Good Morning, Kuwait!

RISE AND SHINE, Kuwait!!!




Usually the hotels we stay at have a breakfast for us for no charge. This one in particular was too good to pass up!!

Talk about starting your day off on the right foot! Delicious!

CHEERS!

-Lisa :-)

My first stay in the 'State of KUWAIT'!!!

Hello again!!

Well, as I mentioned before, I'm out on another long International trip until December 5th!! And I couldn't be happier to be seeing yet EVEN MORE new places on this trip that I've never even DREAMED of seeing in my entire lifetime!

Right now I'm updating from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuwait. My crew and I commercialed in here Wednesday night-Thursday afternoon (Yes, it was THAT LONG of a flight! 14 hours! Ha!), and we're just packing our bags now for our first working flight we have scheduled to Ramstein, Germany departing tonight at 0200.

Anyway, Kuwait has REALLY surprised me at how beautiful it is! The pride they take in their culture that is unlike anything I have ever seen before. They have been very welcoming to us and we haven't run into any problems whatsoever with the cultural adaptation (thank goodness!). We're staying at a SUPER nice 5 star hotel with an amazing lobby with tons of shops and FIVE fancy restaurants. The outdoor pool and spa isn't too shabby, either! ;-) Especially with the 75 degree weather we had here today!


This is the view of the exterior on Thursday night when we checked in. So beautiful! I LOVED these tall bamboo-type doors leading into the hotel.

These are the main doors in the lobby, and as you can see, there are portraits of all the Middle Eastern religious leaders hanging above. Very beautiful!

This is the room I stayed in... I LOVED the color and lighting scheme they had going! I also had an interior balcony that opened up to the main lobby with a gorgeous view and just the right amount of background noise to fall asleep to... :-)

A super modern bathroom as well! Loved it! I love that sink!

Here's the view I had overlooking the main lobby. It was so neat to stand out there last night and people watch!

The hotel's sushi restaurant is to the left there with authentic little Japanese huts where guests were seated. If it weren't on average $18-$21 PER ROLL, I would have eaten there for SURE! Oh well, it was neat to look at and imagine how yummy it must have been... :-) You can also see the balconies across the way... that's what mine looked like!

A view looking in from my balcony... I LOVED the fresh fruit they had waiting for me when I checked in! ;-) "It's a VERRY NICEE!!!"

Philippe and I casually checked out the menus at EACH of the 5 restaurants and finally decided on the 'buffet-style' American restaurant. Hahaha... surprise, surprise! It was still pricey, but we made the MOST of it! The salad bar area had ALL my favorites... delicious green salads and dressings, olives, cold cuts, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, and for the main courses all sorts of freshly-cut meats, fettucine alfredo with mushrooms, falafels, you name it, you could find SOMETHING you liked! And the BEST part was the DESSERT BUFFET... We wanted to try EVERYTHING, and between the two of us, I think we DID!!!


Here is Philippe and I proudly displaying our dessert trays! We each had a cup of coffee after dinner too and relaxed to the background noise of a live Middle Eastern band that was EXCELLENT and SO authentic. We also people-watched and got to check out their dress... I think it's safe to say we stood out like sore thumbs in our American-inspired blue jean GAP look, you think?? :-)


We took a stroll outside the hotel after dinner (Or, waddle, rather... we were STUFFED beyond belief!) and checked out the pool area. Isn't it beautiful?

What a beautiful stay in Kuwait I had! I can't WAIT for Ramstein, Germany. Which reminds me... I better clean myself up & pump my body full of coffee soon. I've got a long night ahead of me on this 6 hour flight!

Also, I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! Never forget to take a minute to realize how lucky we are to have been given the family, friends, and lives that we were blessed with! It is truly a gift.

CHEERS! :-)

-Lisa